Josie Proffitt
About Me
I am currently a senior at Belleville West High School and I found out about the CEO program through a couple students I previously went to school with. It interested me because I’ve always considered business and it seemed like an amazing opportunity to learn about it.
I have been very involved with both school and my extracurricular activities. I’ve been in theatre and choir at West, I previously wrote in the school newspaper, was a student council representative for the junior class, and held a prom committee chair junior year. I was in the Youth Salute Program over the previous summer as well as being in the National Honor Society through West. Outside of school I am an active member at my church and in my community. I have been a youth ministries leader for three years and have spent a lot of time actively helping my church. Over the past year I have also volunteered at both the Cardinals stadium and the Humane Society.
I am an extremely dedicated person to anything I set my mind to. I am hoping by taking this class that my leadership skills will improve along with my goals to be an entrepreneur. After high school, I plan on attending a four year university and getting a degree in marketing or business. I am currently looking at Missouri State University as well as Western Kentucky University.
About My Business
My Featured Journal Entries
This week was full of business visits. Wednesday, we met at Lindenwood belleville and discussed the school’s history. We met with the business department chairs as well as the Lindenwood higher ups, and current Lindenwood students. They set up a scenario of building a new university in a small town, meant to clean the area up, bring more young people to the area, and bring a large amount of profits to the community. Students from our class paired up with current Lindenwood students and played different members of a community, such as the mayor, the university council, and community members. The goal of the activity was to see the benefit that bringing Lindenwood to Belleville has truly brought. It was interesting to see how students and their professors engaged with each other, which was similar to how we are in CEO , versus a high school teacher and their students.
Thursday we went to Chick-fil-a and learned the history behind the company, their values, and what the company stands for.
Friday, we had a skype conversation with Ann Hand, the CEO of Super League Gaming. Although I was initially skeptical of how the conversation would go, it ended up being a really cool skype call. Ann started off with working at a gas station then moving up to running them far before she ended up being part of a startup business. She told us how straight out of high school, she and her fellow graduates thought they struck gold with the job opportunity of what turned out to be running a gas station. Ann expressed the importance of finding a good team to start your company from the beginning, as it’s one of the most crucial parts of a company.
04/27/2018
I think the tradeshow went really well. We had a relatively large turnout and I think pretty much everyone either sold product or made plans to sell services. Honey Tee’s made a few sales and got some potential for future business. I’m overall super happy with how the trade show went and am glad it was our last big event to end the year off on a good note.
04/20/2018
During the week of preparation for Belleville’s got Talent, we met with people such as Bob Bunch, and employees from Men’s Wearhouse. Bob was very important to the group because he helped give us hope for our event, and got us excited to finally get to show the community what we had been working on for months. He was super inspirational and his business of helping others grow their own was truly inspiring. I’ve always found it interesting when people are good motivators for others, and that is exactly what Bob Bunch was for us, as he is for many others. People like Bob have always been a topic of interest for me, because I want to be more like them ultimately. We need more positive people in the world who will help positively impact others as well as their communities. The best part about Bob’s visit was that he told us the story of how he got to meet with our class, which was by getting connected through a friend who knew Mrs. Siebers. That really just showed that the communication concepts we’ve been learning about all year really do work and make an impact.
The people from Men’s Wearhouse were super nice and extremely helpful in showing us what we could potentially wear for future job interviews, as well as other formal events. My favorite part about their visit was showing us ways we could set ourselves apart without standing out in a negative way. I think it’s important to be an individual while still following simple guidelines, and they showed us how to do exactly that.
As for Belleville’s got Talent, it went so well I think all of us were surprised. It was amazing to see something we had been collectively working on as a class finally come together, and I think everyone who attended truly did enjoy their time with us. I feel like we set the bar high for future classes, and had an overall great turnout to the event. It’s scary yet exciting that that would be our last time working on something together as a class, and moving forward with our personal businesses is something I’m super excited for. It will definitely be interesting seeing what everyone ends up doing for their own business after seeing the success we had at Belleville’s got Talent.
02/16/2018
Over the past two weeks, we’ve been struggling to keep up with our class business. Ticket sales were much lower than we expected originally, not enough people knew about the event, and we were really losing our spirits. Last week we were joined by Kelly Quinn, head of Best Buddies, who really helped to improve our views of the event again. She expressed to us how important it is to maintain faith in the product or service you’re providing, otherwise no one else will believe in it either.
We also met with Vince Ojeda. He reiterated the importance of respectful and mature conversations for us as a class. He reassure us that it really isn’t skill that wins in the end, but the effort you’re willing to put into whatever you’re doing. This was reassuring to me, as I’ve never felt very skilled at anything, but with time and effort put in, I can still be successful at whatever I’m doing.
This past week we met with Todd Badgley, who runs FKG Oil company. He and his coworkers really made going to the company an enjoyable experience both with how they conducted their presentations, as well as providing much needed food at the end of our visit. They expressed the importance of being able to evolve in the ever-changing convenience store world. They’re beginning a huge remodeling process this year which will potentially make Moto Marts everywhere more successful in the future.
As for our class business, I was starting to worry our event wouldn’t be at all successful with our lack of ticket sales up until this past week. Despite a lot of people in our class losing hope, Nick and Ian continued pushing us to make our ticket sales and not stop trying to make the event a success. By Friday, the number of ticket sales we previously had were almost doubled and it really made it seem as though the event could still be a success.
02/02/2018
This week flew by as we only had three days of attendance. Wednesday, we met with Mayor Mark Eckert downtown at city hall. He discussed the importance of his position and how hard he’s worked over his terms to keep everyone happy. Something interesting about the mayor is that he and his wife actually own their own business, Eckert Florist, downtown. I think that owning a business must be a relatable thing for him when dealing with other local business owners.
Thursday and Friday were both workdays. We spent the time contacting potential sponsors, as well as starting to make our documents for Belleville’s got Talent. Sponsorship worked on creating our Powerpoint presentation to loop through the beginning of the event.
01/19/2018
Our first day back to class was on Friday. We spent our time at our newest quarter location with members of the previous CEO classes. The alumni that joined us was primarily from the ‘16-17 class. Every person there still had kind things to say about the class and everyone told us at least one way CEO had helped them in college so far. What was interesting about that was the fact that a majority of the alumni aren’t studying business at their respective colleges.
The next week we went to Memorial Hospital and met with Mark Turner, who gave us his unusual rise to the position he holds. Mark went over the importance of education with us and how he wished he would have focused less on basketball, and more on his academics growing up. This wasn’t really surprising as almost everywhere we go stresses the importance of our educations. Another thing he obviously discussed was the prices of healthcare and how the medical field works. I liked how adamant he was about the importance of lowering healthcare costs in generations to come. It showed that, even though he is a higher up at Memorial, he is still very concerned with the affordability of the procedure and treatment going on in the hospital.
Wednesday, we went to the St. Clair Country Club, and met with Thad Payne. Mr. Payne is definitely one of my favorite people we’ve met with to this day. He is so full of character, everything he said and did just captured my attention. His story of when he was in the military wasn’t a typical one to hear, and that made it ten times more interesting. He talked about how he made friends and has had business opportunities that he never would've expected because of his background.
Thursday, we were back at MMR with JoAnn DiMaggio-May. This is our second time meeting her after the conference we went to back in first semester. She came and helped us start writing a business plan for our Belleville’s got Talent event.
01/12/2018
In the past two weeks, we have visited some interesting people. Last week, on Tuesday we met with Mr. Betz, at Fletchers, on the west end of Belleville. He discussed with us the importance of always knowing every detail of your business and knowing the true definition of profit. What I found interesting about Mr. Betz was that he had started off as a manager for a chain and come as far as owning his own restaurant and even having the possibility of branching off into another location.
Tuesday this week, we met with Wendy White, who handles investor’s contributions to the Belleville CEO program and Thursday, we met with Jason Eding, the Director of IT at Precision Practice Management. He told us the story of how he went from majoring in music in college, to becoming head of IT at PPM. Something Jason really stressed was the importance of education and being able to evolve in whatever environment you’re put into. That really stuck out to me, because many of the speakers we hear from had an odd way of reaching success, many without higher level education. It really put into perspective that success can be achieved with or without college, it is majorly dependent on how hard you are working towards it.
The remaining days we had the past two weeks were class days spent working on the class business. We have finally secured a venue, The Scottish Rite, and come to an agreement on pricing for the night. We also set everyone with a goal of getting at least two sponsors for the event, as it is the most costly event we will have this year, and the class has made it a goal to make our event memorable. Last week, we started reviewing the submissions we’ve had sent to us, and printed out a huge stack of flyers to start advertising for the event in February. Overall, the past few weeks have been decently successful and made our class put everything into perspective.
11/17/2017
Our first week at Precision Practice Management went really well. Monday, we met with the head of Art on the Square, Patty Gregory, who explained to us how exactly she went about starting the non-for profit. She and a couple of her friends got together and met with multiple boards in Belleville and figured out the best way to put on a quality art show, and they’ve been in the process for over ten years now.
Tuesday, we got to talk to Renae Eichhoiz. She is the owner and partner of Precision Practice Management, our home base for the quarter. She didn’t tell us her personal story, as she wanted to save that for another day, but she told us about how she started the business and how much time she has dedicated to it over the years. Something interesting she included was that the main reason she decided to sell portions of her self made business was so she could spend time at home, raising her child. This isn’t something that many business owners have talked about with us, about how important it is to have a healthy developed relationship with your child while still actively running your business and the struggles the two ensue.
Wednesday, we got to meet with one of the Midland board heads, John Perles, who discussed with us how he got into business very unexpectedly. He had just finished his golfing season and found an interesting piece of jewelry he could market easily. After making a simple ear cuff and taking it around with him everywhere he went and selling it for profit, he soon realized his product was getting ripped off by small vendors as well as major costume jewelry corporations. He discussed with us how he got a deal with a company to sell his product as well as started making new gold logo products.
10/27/2017
The past two weeks have been full of fun and construction. While we spent most of last week at Allsup discussing the class business, we still were able to get out to see a few businesses. Our first stop was Rauckman Utility Products, where we were shown their business concept and around the factory. Something interesting about the company is that they actually have a machine which makes custom formed rubber working gloves for each employee. They hand make molds of individual’s hands, which is especially helpful to those workers who have lost any fingers. After the mold is made they’re dipped into the glove material & ready by the next day.
We spent a lot of time, last week especially, on the class business and securing down a plan for it. We really focused on what our target audience was going to be. Should it be for all ages to draw in a larger crowd? Or should it have an age limit to keep from unfair advantages for younger contestants? We ultimately decided to set an age limit for participants, which helped us in turn find our target audience. We finished out our last week at Allsup, which kindly let us use their building at the start of our CEO journey to start making moves.
10/20/2017
This week it felt as though we were in a whirlwind that just kept dropping us off at Allsup, as we were there every day for class. Monday, when we had SWIC signup day, we made a poor decision in not greeting the speaker who kindly explained everything to us. We were told at the start of this class no matter the person or level of importance, to always greet any guests or people we encountered with respect, and we failed to follow through with that.
The second day for mentor meetings had a much better turnout, with 20 mentors showing up to talk with us. It was a real struggle making your rounds and meeting everyone when the number of mentors nearly met the number of our classmates. Despite the difficulties, I think everyone found at least one person they felt a connection with. We all went into it thinking someone would have a job or business that closely aligned with what we wanted for our personal business, but that simply isn’t the case. Overall, this week was a quick one, but definitely one for the books.
10/06/2017
This week was one full of great learning opportunities and cremation. Monday we were at Allsup and went over how we were going to wrap up the badge project and discussed how we have done so far in accordance to what our goals were at the start of the project. We didn’t sell all of what we had originally planned but we still made it out of the project with a fair amount of profit left over for our class business even after we actually purchase our badges and all of the tshirts.
Tuesday we found ourselves at Kaskaskia Engineering downtown, where we got to meet one of the biggest dogs in Belleville! We met with Geri Boyer, the owner of Kaskaskia and our board president. She explained to us how she runs her company as a strength-based organization. When someone is hired they take a personality test which identifies their top five themes of talent. This is an amazing idea to me because it shows everyone who has what strengths and weaknesses which in turn decides who works well together, how to be more productive, and add value to the company. Kaskaskia has the philosophy which they aspire to be a sustainable community to build a strong company using their resources. Geri started the business because of discrimination and abuse in the workplace when she first started as an engineer. Another interesting thing about the company is that it is a DBE company, meaning the owner is socially and economically disadvantaged. The Thing that interested me was that the groups discriminated against were individual races, and then women.It really made me realize just how far we still have to go as a country to get the equal treatment these groups keep asking for. Geri prides her business in hiring not based on gender, but on qualifications applicants have for the job, unlike many companies in today’s world.
Wednesday we went to the CEO conference and were able to see many guests who gave us their stories and the impact that businesses had on each of them. We focused on the art of communication and how important first impressions are in business especially. Steve Davis, an Elvis impersonator taught us that we have to keep it together regardless of what is happening in our lives when it comes to our businesses.
Thursday we got the amazing opportunity to go to Kurris Funeral Home. Dale Kurrus, the funeral director, explained to us how everything is run both prior to and during the funeral process. He told us how important it is to maintain professionalism in the workplace, especially in his field. He told us how funerals are important because they provide a final goodbye to loved ones of the deceased and that he strives to maintain excellence in his business because of how long his family has been a part of these people’s lives.
09/22/2017
This week was started off by enjoying a super relaxing Monday with no class due to Labor Day. Tuesday in the classroom at Allsup we took tests and surveys to work on find out how each of us work individually and how to know how to work together. I really like the idea of personality tests as it is a great way to figure out each other's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to working as a whole and forming relationships and bonds as time goes on in the class. We also figured out how exactly we were going to go out and advertise our badge project. Final decisions were made about prices, companies, and how to achieve the most donations.
Wednesday we really focused in on how to speak with leadership of companies and work our way up to get the money we need for the project. A group of us went and set up a meeting with Dave Zura at Allsup for this week to discuss possibly acquiring lanyards from the company.
Thursday we went to the top provider of earbuds to Amazon’s business, which was run out of his home in O’Fallon. It was a really interesting concept to me seeing someone successfully running a company out of their home in our local area as it was not something I had really realized existed in our community to that level of business. He really emphasized how important quality is over quantity and it is very important to bring customers in and keep them buying versus always making the goal to just get new customers.
On Friday at Althoff, we were shown the expansions the school was making and explained to exactly how difficult it can be to run a facility with almost no government funding. I did not feel as though there was an extremely religious environment despite it being a catholic school and I was really interested in how they were basing all of the new things they were doing off of their donations. At one point when showing us granite for their desks, it was explained how this was not originally in the plan but they were gifted just over enough slabs of it to make the number of desks that were needed. This truly amazed me. The fact that things can fall that perfectly into place through hard work and good morals was very inspiring.
09/08/2017
This week was definitely one of increased productivity for our group as a whole. Monday and Tuesday we were keeping busy at Allsup working on our badge project which is coming along at a pretty good rate. Everyone knows their roles for the most part and there really is a set plan of action for how we want to get this project done as a whole. Finding ways to stay actively connected such as through a shared email account, the Groupme, and multiple google documents to check progress has had an active role in us working as a team.
On Wednesday, when we got to go to Holiday World, while it was more of a fun experience than one full of learning it was still helpful. The team at Holiday World really emphasized exactly how important the staff you hire is to your company's success. It amazed me that they bused in their seasonal workers from a 50 mile radius each year to help the workers out. Another huge note at Holiday World was how to remain effective with customers and knowing they are the reason a company is able to thrive and grow. Most companies in our society are based on human interaction and customer service which means that it needs to be held to an extremely high standard.
Thursday at the Belleville District Office it was expressed how important your online reputation is to your success, both in getting hired for a job and while hiring your employees. It was drilled into our memory that anything we put out there is always going to be accessible regardless of if we delete it. Many companies in today’s society use your social accounts to see how we truly are and if they want us to reflect them as a company.
Friday at Egyptian we saw how something as simple as a rebranding can ultimately aid in pushing an already successful company that much further into profiting. We were shown how important it is to keep up with what is going on around us while thinking about our companies. We should not get stuck in old traditional ways and expect a good outcome as the world and technology is always evolving around us.
09/01/2017